student*: Valencia James

teacher**: Ian Douglas

summary of the lesson or experience***: 

A process of decolonization: Understanding and valuing my heritage

I present the lessons from Barbadian dancer/choreographer Ian Douglas, with whom I studied and worked in Barbados during the period of 2003-2005. In the video I start by reflecting on my present life situation, my Afro-Caribbean identity, and how I have been drawing on the lessons from Ian during the past couple years. We speak about the process we have both gone through, navigating post-colonial attitudes and realities, sustaining ourselves as black artists living in Europe, finding our artistic voices and deriving our own notions of home. The video features old DV footage of the Douglas technique from our sessions in October/November 2005.

next student*: Ian Douglas

 

Stay tuned for more information on The Legacy Project!


*The Legacy Student-Videographer: flexible term, always refers to the one who is doing the research and making the video

**The Legacy Teacher: flexible term, always refers to the one who is attributed as the source of the lesson

***The Lesson: what The Legacy Student-Videograper is looking at, reporting on, archiving